Eye level, rear, third brake lights on motor vehicles have been used extensively in recent years and required by law on all new cars for approximately thirty years. The primary purpose of the third brake light is to attract the attention of the driver of the following vehicle more strongly than what is achievable by the two conventional rear brake lights located lower on the back of the vehicle. The following driver's reaction time is reduced and as a result fewer rear end collisions have occurred and traffic safety has improved.
The back areas of vehicles also are used to display messages and slogans for the attention of the driver of the following vehicle. Such messages usually are placed on bumper stickers, rear window stickers, or on displays placed inside the vehicle on the rear window shelf. In recent years such sticker messages have largely fallen into disuse except at election time.
The prior art has put forth several designs for brake light and display systems. Among these are:
US Patent Publication 2003/0179088 to Peter Heller describes a vehicle symbol illumination apparatus which is operable in conjunction with a high mounted brake light wherein the illumination for the vehicle symbol is extinguished, masked or brightened when the high mounted brake light is activated.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,756 to Shlomo Zadok describes a rotatable light box with a number of plane facets consisting of translucent red tinted windows, each of which holds a different transparent strip with a message or graphic. The light box is placed on a rear window shelf of a vehicle. When vehicle brakes are applied, electric lamps attached to a reflector inside a light box illuminate solely a facet and attached message which face rearward where they are seen by a driver in a following car. The number of facets vary from two to eight. A control unit on the vehicle's dashboard is wired to an actuator on the light box to permit the driver to rotate the light box to display different messages. The circuitry illuminates a light panel on the control unit to indicate continuously which message is on display. The indicator light may be turned off by the driver, but will light up every time the brakes are applied. The preferred embodiment uses a solenoid and ratchet type actuator to rotate the light box, combined with a rotary switch for the indicator circuit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,084 to Steven M. Reiser describes a vehicle brake light and display system that employs a display screen having an array of light emitting diodes arranged to transmit a selected pattern or message in red light. A fixed or programmable memory has sets of data stored therein that are selectively extracted to energize certain of the light emitting elements and display a single line of a selected message. Upon actuation of the brake of the vehicle in which the display screen is mounted, display of the message is disabled, and all of the light emitting elements are energized to provide a solid display of red over the entire screen. As a further safety feature, the display is maintained in a disabled condition until initial application of the brake, and subsequent applications of the brake thereafter will cause display of the brake light over the entire display panel.
None of these prior art references describe the present invention.